The Linkielist

Linking ideas with the world

Inventory insurers in NL sneakily exclude smartphones

Posted on by Robin Edgar

It turns out they won’t cover the cost of your smartphone breakages, because they are the most popular claims. And if they do cover your tablet, there are surcharges and other difficulties. Allrisk inboedelverzekeraars hebben zich gewapend tegen kwetsbare smartphones, zo blijkt uit onderzoek van financieel communicatiebureau SevenEight onder 23 grote allrisk inboedelverzekeraars. Source: Inboedelverzekeraar Read more about Inventory insurers in NL sneakily exclude smartphones[…]

Personal data on 198 million voters, including analytics data that suggests who a person is likely to vote for and why, was stored on an unsecured Amazon server.

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A huge trove of voter data, including personal information and voter profiling data on what’s thought to be every registered US voter dating back more than a decade, has been found on an exposed and unsecured server, ZDNet has learned. It’s believed to be the largest ever known exposure of voter information to date. The Read more about Personal data on 198 million voters, including analytics data that suggests who a person is likely to vote for and why, was stored on an unsecured Amazon server.[…]

Revealed: Facebook exposed identities of moderators to suspected terrorists

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A security lapse that affected more than 1,000 workers forced one moderator into hiding – and he still lives in constant fear for his safety Source: Revealed: Facebook exposed identities of moderators to suspected terrorists Facebook moderators like him first suspected there was a problem when they started receiving friend requests from people affiliated with Read more about Revealed: Facebook exposed identities of moderators to suspected terrorists[…]

Scientists win Nobel Prize in Chemistry for making tiny machines out of molecules

Posted on by Robin Edgar

https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/5/13162476/nobel-prize-chemistry-tiny-machine-molecules-nanocar-stoddart-ferringa-sauvage This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists who figured out how to build tiny machines out of molecules. The machines, which include a nano-sized car, are invisible to the human eye and have important implications in medicine and other fields. The researchers — Jean-Pierre Sauvage, J. Fraser Stoddart, and Bernard Feringa Read more about Scientists win Nobel Prize in Chemistry for making tiny machines out of molecules[…]

Facebook’s Emotion Tech: Patents Show New Ways For Detecting And Responding To Users’ Feelings

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Facebook’s newest patent, granted May 25, aims to monitor users’ typing speed to predict emotions and adapt messages in response. We took a look at some of Facebook’s emotion-based patents to understand how the company is thinking about capturing and responding to people’s emotional reactions, which has been a tricky area for consumer tech companies Read more about Facebook’s Emotion Tech: Patents Show New Ways For Detecting And Responding To Users’ Feelings[…]

Dutch Usenetprovider Eweka forced by judge to hand over personal details to BREIN without judicial oversight

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A Dutch judge has said that the usenet provider needs to hand over personal details to BREIN (the Dutch version of the RIAA) without any reason other than that BREIN wants them or face a fine of EUR 1000,- per day. It’s pretty bizarre that some commercial entity can raid anyones private data because they Read more about Dutch Usenetprovider Eweka forced by judge to hand over personal details to BREIN without judicial oversight[…]

Artificial tongues can discriminate between whiskeys

Posted on by Robin Edgar

We present simple tongues consisting of fluorescent polyelectrolytes or chimeric green fluorescent proteins (GFPs) to discriminating 33 different whiskies according to their country of origin (Ireland, US, or Scotland), brand, blend status (blend or single malt), age, and taste (rich or light). The mechanism of action for these tongues is differential quenching of the fluorescence Read more about Artificial tongues can discriminate between whiskeys[…]

The “Doubleswitch” social media attack: how to lock people out of social media accounts and use them to spread fake news

Posted on by Robin Edgar

With the Doubleswitch attack, a hijacker takes control of a victim’s account through one of several attack vectors. People who have not enabled an app-based form of multifactor authentication for their accounts are especially vulnerable. For instance, an attacker could trick you into revealing your password through phishing. If you don’t have multifactor authentication, you Read more about The “Doubleswitch” social media attack: how to lock people out of social media accounts and use them to spread fake news[…]

Artificial intelligence can now predict suicide risk with remarkable accuracy

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In trials, results have been 80-90% accurate when predicting whether someone will attempt suicide within the next two years, and 92% accurate in predicting whether someone will attempt suicide within the next week. The prediction is based on data that’s widely available from all hospital admissions, including age, gender, zip codes, medications, and prior diagnoses. Read more about Artificial intelligence can now predict suicide risk with remarkable accuracy[…]

Hackers Can Spoof Phone Numbers, Track Users via 4G VoLTE Mobile Technology

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A team of researchers from French company P1 Security has detailed a long list of issues with the 4G VoLTE telephony, a protocol that has become quite popular all over the world in recent years and is currently in use in the US, Asia, and most European countries. […] Researchers say that an attacker on Read more about Hackers Can Spoof Phone Numbers, Track Users via 4G VoLTE Mobile Technology[…]

Samsung forces unkillable adverts down Galaxy S8 buyers’ throats

Posted on by Robin Edgar

“Hier heb ik geen 1000 dollar voor betaald!” Source: Samsung verrast gebruikers met advertenties op Galaxy S8 – Webwereld They come with the gaming service which cannot be disabled or uninstalled unless you’re root. Considering you pay through the nose for the most breakable piece of hardware there is, this sounds like a great reason Read more about Samsung forces unkillable adverts down Galaxy S8 buyers’ throats[…]

Apple Rolls Out New Feature That Permanently Associates Devices with Apps, Even After Deletion

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Tim Cook once scolded Travis Kalanick about Uber’s practice of tracking users even after they deleted the app from their iPhones. But in its newest operating system, iOS 11, Apple is rolling out a feature that will allow the same type of tracking—but with fewer privacy implications. Apple’s new feature is called DeviceCheck and, if Read more about Apple Rolls Out New Feature That Permanently Associates Devices with Apps, Even After Deletion[…]

Malware Uses Router LEDs to Air Gap Data From Secure Networks

Posted on by Robin Edgar

This malware will intercept specific data passing through the router, break it down into its binary format, and use a router LED to signal the data to a nearby attacker, with the LED turned on standing for a binary one and the LED turned off representing a binary zero. An attacker with a clear line Read more about Malware Uses Router LEDs to Air Gap Data From Secure Networks[…]

Scientists Are Now Using AI to Predict Autism in Infants

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Despite all the headway that science has made in understanding autism in recent years, knowing which children will one day develop autism is still almost impossible to predict. Children diagnosed with autism appear to behave normally until around two, and until then there is often no indication that anything is wrong. […] In a paper Read more about Scientists Are Now Using AI to Predict Autism in Infants[…]

The open source community is nasty and that’s just the docs

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The 2017 Open Source Survey was hosted on GitHub, which “collected responses from 5,500 randomly sampled respondents sourced from over 3,800 open source repositories” and then added “over 500 responses from a non-random sample of communities that work on other platforms.” The questionnaire was also made available in Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and Russian. Interestingly, Read more about The open source community is nasty and that’s just the docs[…]

Biogenic non-crystalline U(IV) revealed as major component in uranium ore deposits

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Historically, it is believed that crystalline uraninite, produced via the abiotic reduction of hexavalent uranium (U(VI)) is the dominant reduced U species formed in low-temperature uranium roll-front ore deposits. Here we show that non-crystalline U(IV) generated through biologically mediated U(VI) reduction is the predominant U(IV) species in an undisturbed U roll-front ore deposit in Wyoming, Read more about Biogenic non-crystalline U(IV) revealed as major component in uranium ore deposits[…]

Stock Stream – Worlds First Multiplayer Stock Market Game Using Real Money

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Anyone can vote in the Stock Stream Twitch Channel on which stocks should be bought or sold. Trades are executed automatically using Robinhood. How much money is available? The account is funded with $50,000 though unfortunately, due to FINRA/SEC regulations, trading will halt if the account value falls below $25,000. Source: Stock Stream – Worlds Read more about Stock Stream – Worlds First Multiplayer Stock Market Game Using Real Money[…]

Identity Manager OneLogin Has Suffered a Nasty Looking Data Breach

Posted on by Robin Edgar

On Wednesday, OneLogin—a company that allows users to manage logins to multiple sites and apps all at once—announced it had suffered some form of breach. Although it’s not clear exactly what data has been taken, OneLogin says that all customers served by the company’s US data centre are impacted, and has quietly issued a set Read more about Identity Manager OneLogin Has Suffered a Nasty Looking Data Breach[…]

FIREBALL – The Chinese Malware run by Rafotech has 250 Million Computers Infected

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Check Point Threat Intelligence and research teams recently discovered a high volume Chinese threat operation which has infected over 250 million computers worldwide. The installed malware, Fireball, takes over target browsers and turns them into zombies. Fireball has two main functionalities: the ability of running any code on victim computers–downloading any file or malware, and Read more about FIREBALL – The Chinese Malware run by Rafotech has 250 Million Computers Infected[…]